Long Rock

Long Rock
Long Rock from a helicopter
Long Rock is located in Cornwall
Long Rock
Long Rock
Location within Cornwall
OS grid referenceSW497315
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPENZANCE
Postcode districtTR20
Dialling code01736
PoliceDevon and Cornwall
FireCornwall
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall
50°07′44″N 5°30′02″W / 50.12891°N 5.50067°W / 50.12891; -5.50067

Long Rock (Cornish: Carrek Hyr) is a village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Penzance and 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Marazion in the civil parish of Ludgvan. The village is named after the tidal Long Rock just offshore at grid reference SW498308.[1] Long Rock is on the shore of Mount's Bay at the centre of the three-mile beach which stretches from Penzance to Marazion. The beach is backed by a seawall along which runs the main line railway and the South West Coast Path.

The rock offshore that the village is named after

A dual carriageway bypass carries the A30 road north of the village and the land beside the road has been extensively developed with light industry and a retail park. Penzance Heliport is situated between Long Rock and Penzance. The original heliport was demolished in 2014 and a Sainsburys supermarket, car park and trading estate was built on the site. In 2019 new heliport was built on a site opposite the heliport trading estate a hundred yards away from the original heliport and in the spring of 2020 commenced a scheduled service to the Scilly Isles.

Facilities

There used to be a public toilets, but these closed and were sold at auction for £160,000

The nearest primary schools are located in Gulval and Ludgvan, with the nearest secondary school, Humphry Davy School, in Penzance. Village facilities include a shop, post office, two pubs (one offering B & B), a care home, an equestrian and agricultural supplier, a hall which can be hired, two motorbike training places, a car rental business and several car sales businesses. The industrial estate contains a glass merchant, a computer repairer, a vet and a solar energy firm.

Long Rock Playing Field Association recently received a grant to install new play equipment. Penwith District Council built a new 'amenity area' in a field close to the A30.

Marazion Marsh, an RSPB nature reserve leased from Lord St Levan, is situated half-a-mile east of the village.[2]

The local community radio station is Coast FM (formerly Penwith Radio), which broadcasts on 96.5 and 97.2 FM.[3]

Transport

The GWR depot at Long Rock
A train runs along the Cornish Main Line

Long Rock is the site of a locomotive shed. Formerly catering to steam locomotives, it is the most south-westerly depot on the former Great Western Railway's system. Now known as Penzance TMD, it is a refuelling and servicing depot for diesel locomotives and HST sets.[4]

Long Rock has regular bus services to Penzance and Truro and is on The Cornish Way network of cycle paths.

Cornish wrestling

William Couch Jeffery (1826-1899),[5] was from Long Rock and was champion middleweight[6] of Cornwall for a quarter of a century including the 1840s and 1850s.[7][8][9] He won many prizes in Cornwall as well as London.[9] He was initially a miner and then a market gardener and fisherman.[5] He spent some time in Australia and it was said that he had beaten the Australian champion wrestler, who was an Irishman after walking 160 miles to the match.[10][9]

References

  1. ^ OS Explorer Land's End (Map). Southampton: Ordnance Survey. 2015. ISBN 978 0 319 24304 6.
  2. ^ "Marazion Marsh". RSPB. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Volunteer run Penwith Radio to change its name to Coast FM". falmouthpacket.co.uk. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  4. ^ Bennett, Alan (1988). The Great Western Railway in West Cornwall. Runpast Publications. ISBN 1-870754-12-3.
  5. ^ a b Death of a Cornish wrestler, Cornubian and Redruth Times, 3 November 1899, p5.
  6. ^ Wrestlers of the past, Cornishman - Thursday 28 January 1904, p5.
  7. ^ Wrestling at Redruth, The Cornish Telegraph, 15 May 1884, p8.
  8. ^ Wrestling at Redruth, Cornishman - Thursday 15 May 1884, p5.
  9. ^ a b c Death of a manly wrestler, Cornishman, 9 November 1899, p2.
  10. ^ Death of a Cornish wrestler, and respected man, Cornishman - Thursday 02 November 1899, p5.